Denbighshire Rural Services
January 05, 2010
Project Area: Rural Services
County: Denbighshire
Project Officer: Helen Roberts
Axis: 4
What is the Project?
The project will pilot new initiatives which aim to provide basic services for rural Denbighshire. The project is currently split into the following areas;
Community transport facilities - examples include the pilot of the demand responsive transport and community services and the development of new community shop.
Pub is The Pub programme - an initiative in which encourages pub owners, licenses and local communities to work together to help support, retain and improve access to basic rural services.
Development Work – support for other basic rural services identified in the RDP such as leisure, sport and cultural activities.
Access to Essential Services - a pilot initiative which will implement a media driven public-awareness campaign to improve the overall signage of rural farms and dwellings.
How can we help?
The project will support innovative pilot initiatives which are new to the local area or it will support existing initiatives which are seeking to pilot a new element to their venture.
Project Examples/History
Community transport facilities
FFLECSI – Rural Demand Responsive Public Transport
The project will pilot the extension of a Demand Responsive Public transport scheme into rural areas by offering communities with current limited public transport an improved and flexible service. The project has not previously been piloted in rural Denbighshire, thus the pilot stage is essential prior to mainstreaming if successful, through mainstream funding sources. The project will deliver the following:
- Provide a flexible daytime service - rather than fixed times on certain days only.
- Offer a 6-day a week service rather than the current patchwork.
- Enable passengers to book services, for maximum flexibility and to increase journey opportunities.
- New evening service (for leisure centres, etc), to assist any member of the community but targeted at older people (for free swimming) and younger people (general leisure).
- Afford secondary school pupils the ability to return home ‘late’, after school extracurricular activities.
- Extend operations beyond fixed times or infrequently fixed days per week (opportunity for 6 days/week 0900-1500;1630-1800; after 1800 hrs).
- Offer a fully easy access service for buggies, wheelchairs, people with lower mobility, etc.
- Use proven IT to support the service, diverting it at need.
- Use smaller vehicles able to penetrate rural areas more (bus stops would continue in villages but access away would be more flexible).
- Enable connections, where possible, to the strategic bus network for areas further affield (e.g. Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, travel to Wrecsam, Mold, etc).
- Undertake a rigorous programme of marketing communications for the project
- Monitor its success and to suggest and implement areas of improvement wherever necessary during the pilot period
PUB IS THE HUB
Pub is The Hub is an established initiative in England which encourages pub owner, licenses and local communities to work together to help support, retain and improve access to basic rural services. The main driver of PUB IS THE HUB is to encourage the local communities to work together as a collective partnership, regardless of their background and also seek to use other properties (as well as a pub) as social and economic ”hubs” particularly if the local pub may already have closed.
The project will enable communities in rural Denbighshire to look for innovative ways to ensure rural pubs remain relevant to the needs of their local communities, and also where, relevant it will enable village communities to act as co-operatives to buy the pub to ensure it is retained as a centre of services for their local area.
The project, in partnership with the PUB IS THE HUB initiative, will seek to encourage social enterprise and diversification for pubs where these particularly can support many rural services, which are either under threat or may have recently ceased.
The project will support professional advice and guidance, capacity building, feasibility studies and business planning and it will support a grant scheme to pilot new initiatives under the PUB IS THE HUB programme.
This project is totally innovative to rural Denbighshire and indeed rural Wales, it will be run as a pilot in rural Denbighshire with the intention, if successful to be mainstreamed through other funding sources after December 2010. The project will also be implemented with due regard to WAG’s Rural Retailer Scheme, to ensure that there is no duplication between PUB IS THE HUB in rural Denbighshire and the existing support available through WAG.
Development Work
In addition to the 2 areas of project work detailed above, the project will also support access to basic service which may not be directly addressed by the Demand Responsive Transport Scheme and the Pub is The Hub initiative. These include basic services as identified in the Measure Fiches i.e.
- leisure, sport and cultural activities
- childcare facilities
- transport services other than demand responsive transport
- telecommunication services
- retail services.
The project will provide support for pre-commercial development work e.g. consultancy, feasibility studies, business planning, capacity building. In addition it will provide support for implementation to pilot the elements listed above once the initial preparatory work has been undertaken. This element will also be implemented with due regard to WAG’s Rural Retailer Scheme, to ensure that there is no duplication between PUB IS THE HUB in rural Denbighshire and the existing support available through WAG.
Access to Essential Services
Raising Awareness in Rural Communities
In partnership with the Denbighshire Community Safety Strategy, the project will support a pilot initiative which will implement a media driven public-awareness campaign to improve the overall signage of rural farms and dwellings. In addition, signage will be included at key areas.
In the absence of local area knowledge and despite the advances in technological aids such as computer mapping software and sat-nav systems, the emergency services continue to experience difficulties in promptly locating and identifying addresses in rural areas. Valuable time is being lost in trying to locate addresses, time which could ultimately cost life. The project is endorsed by the Emergency Services, DCC and the Denbighshire Community Safety Partnership and it is intended to be run as a pilot in rural Denbighshire with the aim of rolling it out to other areas if this approach is successful.
It is noted that this project directly addresses the Rural Development Plan Axis 3 Measure of “access to basic services”. There is a fundamental need to enable emergency services to provide essential and rapid services to rural areas. In comparison with urban areas, communities in rural Denbighshire may otherwise be disadvantaged in gaining rapid access to these services due to peripherality of these rural communities.
It is also noted that the project does not directly fund any statutory duty by the emergency authorities, its emphasis is on enabling rural communities to gain rapid access to basic and fundamental services, thus reducing the negative aspects of rurality and peripherality faced by communities in rural Denbighshire.
For more information
For more information on any of the above schemes please contact Helen Roberts on 01824 705802 or e-mail helen.roberts@cadwynclwyd.co.uk